Brazil: 1 Millon Women Unite Against Alt-Right Bolsonaro

He is “known to despise minorities in Brazil, such as women, blacks and homosexuals, the presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro…” wrote the Brazilian journalist Luciana Rosa.

The “Women United Against Bolsonaro” Facebook group now has one million members. | Photo: Twitter: @MucbContra | Photo from teleSUR.

14 September 2018 (teleSUR)* — The “Women United Against Bolsonaro” Facebook group was created on August 30th, and now has a million members even though it is a closed group. According to local media, about 10,000 women join the group on a daily basis.

He is “known to despise minorities in Brazil, such as women, blacks and homosexuals. The presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, will have a new challenge ahead: women,” wrote the Brazilian journalist Luciana Rosa for the NODAL news network.

“A group destined to unite women from all over Brazil (and those living outside Brazil) against the advance and strengthening of machismo, misogyny and other types of prejudices represented by candidate Jair Bolsonaro and his constituents,” is part of the group’s description.

The presidential candidate, a former army captain, Jair Bolsonaro has shown misogyny, homophobia and racism in several speeches for a long time.

“It is no news to anyone that this election will be decided by women, it is proven that we don’t support a machista candidate. … As if that wasn’t enough, the same candidate is also racist. … And if you think this is still not enough, the same candidate is also homophobic,” Brazilian journalist Patricia Lelis wrote for the Forum magazine.

From the last polls published by Datafolha, 49 percent of women reject alt-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, in a country where 52 percent of the electorate are women.

The group “Women United Against Bolsonaro,” reserved only for women, is strengthened by rejection for the former captain, and the belief that the “recognition of the strength of the union of us women can direct the future of this country! Welcome those who identify with the growth of this movement.”

Within the group, the women refer to Bolsonaro as “he who shall not be named,” and are against him and his candidacy. However, the group does not take the side of other parties, “because the group’s goal is ‘against him,'” according to the established rules.

The group does not serve as a propaganda vehicle for any other candidate, but rather as a platform to fight against the far-right candidate.

“The ‘Women United Against Bolsonaro’ group is not just a movement that will stay on the internet. We go to the streets to protest against everything that disrespects us and takes away our rights,” said Lelis.

The next goal of the group is the organization of demonstrations, across the country, against misogyny which at this moment is mostly represented in the figure of Jair Bolsonaro.

Manuela D’avila, the Workers Party (PT) candidate for the vice-presidency and member of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB), called on the public to join the group, “because women are those who suffer the impact of the crisis with greater intensity and we are used to that.”

Bolsonaro, 63, is a far-right and U.S.-backed, candidate whose insults against gays and women, and his praise for the torturers of the 1964-85 dictatorship, have deepened Brazil’s political divides.

In 2014, in the lower house of Congress, he told a leftist member, Maria do Rosario, that she “didn’t deserve” to be raped, because of her looks.